Wednesday, May 28, 2014

May 20, 2014

Hello, all! Hopefully things are going well at home! You guys are in my prayers, although it sounds like things are starting to slow down, so maybe you don't need my prayers anymore, haha. Just let me know.

Wow, we had a great week. I can't believe my stay in Budapest is over! Today, we got our transfer calls, and I will go to a city in the West called Győr! It's right by my 2nd area, Pápa. I've spent a lot of time there already, and it's super pretty and full of awesome people, so I know that it will be just the most wonderful time. My new companion will be Elder Thomas, who actually went to high school with Elder Dellenbach, haha. Thomas is from the group younger than me, so I already know him pretty well from the MTC.

We will actually have a car in the companionship, and since I don't have a licence (and can't get one at this point), I don't have to drive... ever!

Well, since I've been here for 6 months now, it's kind of hard to part from some people. Of course, I'm a missionary, and so I'm used to it. Some of our investigators and other friends who have gotten used to us think it's hard to part with all the missionaries who are coming and going. Elder Dellenbach is staying here, and is going to be the same age as his new companion, which means that he's growing up! So we are proud of him as well. He's a fine young man and will get the work going really well here.

This week was pretty crazy. We had a ton of new people who agreed to meet with us, but most of them didn't show up, or chickened out at the last second or something. Either way, we still got to convince like 5 people to meet with us again!

One guy we met with was a little drunk when we showed up... it was like 10 am, but most everyone else was very sober and willing to listen. Only one of our investigators laughed at us for believing in what we believe, so it was a good break, I guess, haha.

We had some suuuper cool stuff going on too- some BYU Orchestra came to town and played an amazing concert in a really nice concert hall place, then had a fireside on another day. We were able to go to both, and they were awesome! One of the people came here on her mission- she was in my district during my first transfer, and her last one. I was suprised that she remembered me, but... I guess you can't forget a face like mine, huh?

We also got to go to a wedding for a good friend of mine from Miskolc (my last area) and our ward mission leader! It was awesome! I'm super happy for them!

Some kid during a zone meeting changed into a dress for a special spiritual thought... they called it a "laughing tip." Then he just wore the dress for the rest of the meeting. Funny things.

Well, one thing that I love is when someone comes to church for the first time. Maybe it's out of curiosity, or maybe they are seriously looking for a new place to belong, but I love seeing people take that first step of faith to try a new experience. For me, seeing someone walk into the branch house door for the first time is so exciting! We have been able to get a few people over the last week to start coming to church, and it's been awesome! I'm so proud of our investigators!

Right now, I'm really sad that I have to leave Buda. The work has been slowly improving over the last few weeks, and now it's starting to pick up a lot more. I don't know how much of that was me, but it feels so good to be able to be a part of it. Another thing that is sad is that a lot of my friends are going home this week ... I think we have like 17 people going home, a lot of whom I served with or around. It's weird to think that I am as old as they were when I first came to Buda. 6 months!

Well, that's the end of another good week. Hopefully yours was good too!